Is your business ready for the emerging generation of mobile phones and the generation of consumers that use them? Most new smart phones are GPS equipped, and enabled to use a host of new things never before possible. They are "location aware." Like a regional affiliate of a national network, they can mix in some local marketing with the national messages, wherever "local" happens to be. They can also make it much easier to find information about your business when near you. That is, if your digital ducks are in a row.

John Jantsch has this advice on his "Ductape Marketing" blog:
1) Make certain that your business profile is correct and complete in Google Maps, Yahoo!Local and LocalLive. (Claim your listing in Google or risk having it hijacked) - many devices will use this map data to help people locate and view satellite photos of your place of business.
2) Start exploring ways to make your websites, blogs and email marketing efforts mobile friendly. I use a service called MoFuse to create a mobile friendly version of my blog. (This topic warrants and entire post and I’m working on it.)

More and more consumers are bypassing traditional media, researching restaurants, mechanics, and retailers online. On their phone. Or, they're simply checking their GPS-enabled phone for the one that happens to be closest by.

Once you complete the profiles talked about above, your customers do the rest. Each of those sites provides a place for users to rate you. So if Johnny an Suzie are driving down the road and search for a local burger joint on Johnny's iPhone, when yours comes up, it'll come up with reviews from actual customers. Assuming they had a good experience, that's some of the best free marketing you can get! So don't miss out on this easy opportunity to get your name in front of potential customers.

Right now at Meyer & Wallis, we're working on a couple very exciting projects utilizing this very technology. If GPS-enabled phones know where you are, they can be programmed to do way more than give you driving directions. And if you have the desire to truly stand out among your competition, the world of mobile marketing is still very much a frontier where innovation will get you noticed. But it won't stay that way for long.

(We'd love to help.)